Being that the original thread was 4 years ago, heres what I ended up with. I did in fact remove the active electronics...for a minute. Ended up putting them back in. Tried a Nordstrand set of pickups, didnt like them (I dont even remember why). Put the originals back in and started to get used to dialing in the bass from a stock condition. I still have the bass and still use it today, just as it shipped from Lakland.
The most interesting thing that happened though during this experimental stage was unexpected. I spent the last 15 years playing in top 40 high energy bands here in Detroit. During this time, I played Spector, Music Man ,Fender and Lakland basses. I used many different amp setups, Mesa, Fender, GK, Ampeg, etc. I also used a multitude of bass DIs (you name it, I tried it). I also used in ear monitors the whole time. 64 Audio N8s. None of my gear was ever considered junk or inferior stuff. I struggled BIG TIME with my tone. Finally after all the years, I stopped playing with these groups that had to sound like the record. I started my own project and low and behold, my tone came back. I was very happy. what changed? I was no longer playing along with backing tracks. As soon as they were gone, everything opened up. They were stepping on my space.I realize that its very common to use them, many do, and the type and quality of them probably make a huge difference. But when they were gone, I found my voice again.
